Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Citation life cycles of ten citation classics

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Not all highly cited papers have the same citation life cycle curves, i.e. curves of frequency of citations received vs. time. The citation life of ten randomly selected Citation Classics, five in medicine and five in biochemistry, are studied longitudinally in time and compared with a random sample of ten non-classics of the same cohort. There are pronounced differences in the life cycle curves; two distinct types are suggested. Type A, comprised of both high and low cited papers in both fields, has an early peak of citation rate and may be approximated by a bilinear cumulative citation curve with a break at six years of age, when three quarters of the total number of citations have occurred. Type B, in this study comprised of extremely highly cited methodological Citation Classics, exhibit a constant or slowly accelerating growth rate with a vigorous citation life extending over the entire period studied and typically one third or less of the total citations accumulated at six years of age.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. M. Line, A. Sandison, Obsolescence and changes in the use of the literature with time,Journal of Documentation, 30 (1974) 284–351.

    Google Scholar 

  2. D. de Solla Price,Little Science, New York, Columbia University Press, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  3. R.E. Burton, R.W. Kebler, The half-life of some scientific and technical literatures,American Documentation, 11 (1960) 18–22.

    Google Scholar 

  4. R.L. Dahling, Shannon's information theory: The spread of an idea, In:Studies of Innovation and of Communication to the Public, Stanford, California, Institute for Communication Research, 1962, pp.119–130.

    Google Scholar 

  5. S.T. Cole, The growth of scientific knowledge, theories of deviance as a case study, In:The Idea of Social Structure: Papers in the Honour of R.K. Merton,L.A. Coser, (Ed.), New York, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovitch, 1975, pp. 175–220.

    Google Scholar 

  6. R.K. Blashfield, Feigner et al.: Invisible colleges and the Matthew effect,Schizophrenia Bulletin, 8 (1982) 1–2.

    Google Scholar 

  7. F. McMurtray, J.M. Ginski, Citation patterns of the cardiovascular serial literature,Journal of the American Society for Information Science, May–June, (1972) 172–175.

    Google Scholar 

  8. V.M. Motylev, Study into the stochastic processes of change in the literature citation pattern and possible approaches to literature obsolescence estimation,International Forum for Information and Documentation, 6 (1981) 3–12.

    Google Scholar 

  9. N.L. Geller, J.S. de Cani, R.E. Davies, Lifetime-citation rates; A mathematical model to compare scientist's work,Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Sept.–Oct. (1981) 333–336.

    Google Scholar 

  10. S. Arunachalam, U.N. Singh, Publication and citation patterns in the literature of a high metabolism area: The case of superconductivity in 1970,Journal of Information Science, 8 (1984) 93–102.

    Google Scholar 

  11. M.B. Line, Citation decay of scientific papers: Variation according to citations received,Journal of Information Science, 9 (1984) 90.

    Google Scholar 

  12. M.B. Line, Does physics literature obsolescence? A study of variation of citation frequency with time for individual journal articles in physics,BLL Review, 1 (1974) 84–91.

    Google Scholar 

  13. E.S. Aversa,Citation Patterns of 400 Scientific Papers and Their Relationship to Literature Again, PhD Dissertation, Philadelphia, Drexel University, 1984, 178p.

    Google Scholar 

  14. K. McCain, K. Turner, Citation analysis and aging patterns of journal articles in Molecular Genetics,Scientometrics, 17 (1989) 127–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. A. Avramescu, Actuality and obsolescence of scientific literature,Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Sept. (1979) 296–303.

    Google Scholar 

  16. A. Avramescu, Theoretical foundation of Bradford's law,International Forum for Information and Documentation, 5 (1980) 15–22.

    Google Scholar 

  17. E. Garfield, 100 Classics from The Lancet,Current Contents, 39 (1984) 3–13.

    Google Scholar 

  18. E. Garfield, The 100 most cited papers ever and how we select citation classics,Current Contents, 23 (1984) 3–9.

    Google Scholar 

  19. E. Garfield, Citation classics-Four years of the human side of science,Current Contents, 22 (1981) 5–15.

    Google Scholar 

  20. A. Mendez, I. Gomez, Comparison of citation classics in three fields of science,Scientometrics, 15 (1989) 621–632.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. B.B. Peritz, Are methodological papers more cited tham theoretical or empirical one? The case of sociology,Scientometrics, 5 (1983) 211–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. S. Cozzens, What do citations count? The rhetoric-first model,Scientometrics, 15 (1989) 437–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Carlos 3, Calle Madrid 126, 28903, Getafe, (Spain)

    V. Cano

  2. University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, (Canada)

    N. C. Lind

Authors
  1. V. Cano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. N. C. Lind
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cano, V., Lind, N.C. Citation life cycles of ten citation classics. Scientometrics 22, 297–312 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020003

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020003

Keywords

Search

Navigation